During the last decade Greece has experienced a severe economic crisis, and student housing has still been a bizarre sector in the local real estate industry.
According to real estate market executives, Greek universities dormitories are not sufficient to house all the students and in many cases are not even in proper condition to shelter young people. Maintenance works have been for years neglected and in times when there was no funding available.
Nowadays, everyone is expecting the large PPPs through which will be developed the dormitories at the Universities of Thrace, Crete, and Thessaly, but not earlier than these projects are completed, students are forced to seek housing outside campus.
According to people familiar with the market, property owners’ expectations are high in terms of rental prices, especially for small apartments within walking distance of public transport that offer easy access to universities.
Asking rental prices (usually for furnished apartments that also include household appliances) for apartments spanning from 30 sqm to 60 sqm at much lower levels.
A more typical example is Athens with the owners asking for more than € 9 per square meter on average this year and finally the agreements closing a little over € 6 per square meter. The picture is similar in Thessaloniki, where the "hard to find" owners of small properties for rent ask for more than € 8 per square meter and finally give their hands around € 5.
Discrepancies in Heraklion, Crete, seems to be huge, according to local realtors, where there are ads with around € 8 per square meter and the agreements close at € 6 per square meter. The "gap" is smaller in Patras, Volos and Komotini with the requested prices being at € 6.7, € 7.7 and € 6 against transactions at € 5.6, € 5.5 and € 5.8.
